im wondering whether buying rims on e-bay is a good idea or not. are they a bunch of fakes? or are those great deals really legit? my budget is kinda tight and i need sweet rims for cheap so i need to know whether i should do this or not.

 

I buy stuff on Ebay all the time, and am almost always pleased with the results. The only thing I don't like is that I can't see the items in person. You can Email the seller any questions you might have...Also be sure to look at the seller's rating.

MR

 

Ya and pay attention on how the auctions going,
1/2 the times your bidding against the actual owner
pushing the price up higher.

The last 3 things I won on E-Bay seem to be a scam.
I won a car cover V told me about, I immediatly emailed
the seller asking how to pay him and ask @ shipping info,
never heard from him again, tried emailing many times since.

Then saw the same exact add the next week, emailed
the seller telling him he looked like the guy from last week
I won the auction in and is it you, AGAIN no answer to my
e-mails.

The other item was even better, I won the auction, still have
a copy of the page saying
Bidding has ended for this item (rob3832 is the winner)
If you are rob3832, click the Continue button to pay now.

Within minutes afterwards,
another person was named as the winner.
I sent the seller an email telling him he was a punk ***
scam artist, and again recieved no e-mails.

BE CAREFUL ON E-BAY, LOTS AND LOTS OF SCAMS,
most going back to the seller.

BTW
V sells on it all the time, I aint making any accusations,
take it for what it's worth
hehehehehehehehe...................

 

I have bought many items on eBAY over the last few years. ALWAYS check eBAY seller feedback! When you check it be sure you are hearing about how they sell and not how they behave when buying. ALSO, recommend you AWAYS charge to a charge card like VISA or MC and never pay the seller directly from your checking account. IF, IF and it will happen that a Seller burns you, you can call your charge card company and they will do a "chargeback" and you get your money back. The seller has the burden of proving you owe him the $. IF you use your checking and pay you are OUT the $ is things go wrong. Recently, I was winning bidder on two Lightning emblems. They were over $25.00. Items never arrived and the Seller vanished! VISA did a chargeback, no questions asked so I was not out the money. VISA did send me a note saying that they would not do frequent chargebacks and to be careful whom I did business with.
Anyway, if a seller has lots (over say 50) good SELLER feedbacks you can usually feel somewhat secure but then you never know. Use charge card not checking even when going through PayPal.
eBAY and PayPal pretty much turn their heads when you get burn't unless you bought their buyer protection insurance... Also, you can also use "ESCROW" when bidding on / winning pricier items and this does give you protection...

 

I remember the story about a guy buying wheels for his mustang on ebay. The ad said "Update your mustang GT with cobra model wheels." The guy paid like $800 and received in the mail, 4 tiny plastic "model" wheels for a plastic model cobra. So, read the ad carefully. The seller stood by the deal and told the guy to re-read the ad.

 

That sucks. I've purchased a number of things on Ebay and have only been burned once for about $40.00. I hope you reported that to Ebay as they will suspend the persons right to use Ebay. There are still ways around it, but it least it makesEbay aware of the jerk.

 

Another major Ebay scam right now is stealing ebay identities with good ratings and selling usining their name. They then have you paypal or Western Union money to a different person. They are usually expensive items, like ATV's, Toyota Supra TT's, etc. out there for half price "Buy it now". They are scammin'!

 

I buy and sell a lot on Ebay. ALWAYS check the seller/buyer's rating. If it's not good, DON'T BUY IT! The only times I've ever had a problem was with buyers with poor ratings.

 

I guess the experience is very individual:

I was the high bidder on my black 2002 Lightning, but didn't make the reserve. Seller, an used exotic-cars dealer, e-mailed me anyway and asked if we could negotiate. He had no idea how much the truck was loaded except for the MAC Air filter. Flew out to Houston, drove it back home and discovered an Accufab TB, a complete JDM exhaust system (Headers, Fast Cats, X-pipe and Magnaflows), Bilstein shocks, Traction bars and a flashed EEC.

All in all I have been pretty happy with Ebay

 

a couple of tips.....

1.if the listing says its for bidders that have to be ok'd by the seller, its a scam. you email them to ask to be approved to bid on their item, then they try to sell it to you outside of ebay. then when you give them cash, they never call again...and its outside of ebay so you can file with them

2.check the feedback. be wary of people with little/no feedback. check the negative feedback and see if the seller has responded to any of it, and see what the positive feedback is too.

3.i never bid on auctions that say shipping will be determined by the seller after the auction has ended. after you buy the item and email him concerning the shipping, he can make it as much as he wants, and ebay will back him b/c it was in the original purchase agreement on the auction page. it happened to me...i bought a hat for $13 and he tried to charge me $35 for s&h. when i declined, he filed ME with ebay for non-payment of the item, and its actually now on my feedback sheet saying im a non-payer. i talked to ebay, and they said it happens a lot, but that since i wouldnt pay the $35 shipping I broke the original contract and would stay filed as a non-payer for that particular auction.

ebay is a really cool site and you can find TONS of good deals, but the old saying comes to mind "caveat emptor"(buyer beware)

if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.